Sosa Grabs Attention on Slow Day for Hogs in Hoover

Following Alabama on day three at SEC Media Days is not ideal if you are Chad Morris and his players coming off a 2-10 2018 season. Nick Saban and boy legend quarterback Tua Tagovailoa were guaranteed to all but blot out the sun among the hundreds of media types that gathered the Winfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama for the SEC’s annual unofficial kickoff to the college football season.

It wasn’t the reason he did it but veteran Arkansas D-lineman McTelvin “Sosa” Agim came up with an attention grabber of his own when he stepped into the TV room with a large “Chucky” doll tucked under his right arm.

For those who have not seen the series of movies Chucky Ray is a fictional character whose spirit inhabits a doll. He continuously tries to transfer his soul from the doll to human bodies.

The first question was predictable.

“What’s up with the doll?” a Huntsville, Alabama reporter asked.

“Basically the doll represents my little cousin that was murdered,” Agim answered. “It’s an unsolved homicide and it’s basically shedding light on his name and keeping his memory alive.”

After an awkward pause followed by an unrelated question Agim was asked why that particular doll was used. Was there something significant about it that relates to his deceased cousin? Agim said the only reason he picked it was because, “I like Chuckie.”

Pressed for more information on his decision to bring the doll to Media Days Agim said he wants his late cousin to experience things he never got a chance to see. “I used to go back to the city (Texarkana) and tell him everything that I see and everything that was going on,” Agim added. “He was never able to come to a game. Now he’s able to see it all and I’m able to keep him with me.”

The reaction from Razorback fans on social media was mixed.

Sympathy for his loss but that is odd, one fan wrote. Strange.

I like Sosa, and whatever it is, it means something to him and maybe to his family, another reasoned.

I’m with you on this one for sure. Sosa seems like a very polite young man and I like what I’ve seen from him. People have different ways of expressing their grief and loss, so who are we to criticize a choice, yet another fan added.

Morris had little reaction to Agim bringing the doll with him to Media Days other than to acknowledge that it’s nothing new. “It’s in remembrance of his cousin who was killed about a year ago,” Morris told reporters. “It’s one of the things he takes with him everywhere he goes.”